Hybrid Air Vehicles is awarded €2.5 million of EU funding

The funding helps the company to develop a regulatory framework for certification of this vehicle type with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and migrate the technology from the military specification and certification it was originally designed under, to the agreed EASA civil standard. The Airlander Civil Exploitation Project (ACEP) will undertake this work.

The Horizon 2020 scheme is the EU's seven-year research programme. The Airlander hybrid air vehicle is a new form of aircraft designed by Hybrid Air Vehicles which combines inert lifting gas, aerodynamics and vectored thrust. Performance advantages include one third the fuel burn of conventional aircraft, reduced reliance on infrastructure and intermodal transport due to the amphibious all-terrain landing gear technology.

The full scale prototype reached first flight in 2012 under a US Army programme. After the first flight, the programme ceased due to US budget constraints. HAV purchased the vehicle, disassembled and returned it to the UK and benefited from a ruling from the US State Department that removed all US military export regulations.

The company also secured £2.5m from Innovate UK alongside investment from a group of private investors for work with other British firms including avionics experts Bluebear Systems and materials company Forward Composites and specialist teams from Cranfield, Liverpool and Sheffield Universities.

It has also received a significant grant from the Regional Growth Fund, in one of 56 new awards announced on 12 February 2015.

HAV is aiming to raise over £2million on Crowdcube, the Equity Crowdfunding platform.